Furries

My boyfriend's mom is a really talented seamstress- she's designed costumes for the Virginia Stage Company countless times and has worked in lots of Broadway shows like Wicked, Spamalot, and Grease. Needless to say, her kids always have the coolest outfits. A few years ago, she made hats for everyone that looked like their favorite animal. My boyfriend has a fox hood- it's got big fox ears and looks like real fur (it's not, though.) They wear them when they go skiing every winter. As my christmas present, she sewed me this beautiful tiger hood to match my boyfriend's. I know it sounds weird, wearing a hat that looks like an animal head, but they're really exquisitely made and are so warm that I don't mind the funny looks I get. Still, one time I was at shafer with my man, before I'd gotten my tiger. He let me wear the fox hood and as we were getting ready to leave, a guy and his friend approached us and asked if they could ask me a question. He said, "I don't want to offend you, but....
are you a furry?"
I didn't know what a furry was, and told him so, and he thanked me and left, but I of course needed to know what on earth a furry was, so I went straight home and googled it.
Turns out, furries are people who dress in full body animal suits (like mascot suits, with a big removable head and everything.) There's a few sub-groups of furries, but in general, they're people who like the idea of anthropomorphic animals, many of whom create a "fursona," or animal identity. There is also, of course, the furry fetish, where people dress as animals and have sex, or find sexual pleasure in the idea of a human-animal hybrid.
I was kind of terrified to wear my hat after that, but in the warm weather I don't really have to worry about it. Ever since then, however, I've been much more aware of furries- I'm not a furry, nor is my boyfriend, nor do I know any in real life, but I think it's a very different perspective than we usually see, and it's also one that's very interesting and suprisingly deep-rooted.
If you were a furry, what do you think your "fursona" would be? What do you think of the furry culture? Do you know anyone who's a furry, or are you perhaps a furry yourself?

This is a picture of my basset hound, Sherman, wearing the fox hood. What a cutie.